Ryan Holiday

you know, reputation and they got a lot of press when it came out, but actually they affect nationwide the sales of cigarettes, which, you know, less people die from lung cancer as a result of this decision.

And I would talk about that and I always thought it was cool.

And then a couple of years ago, there's this little grocery store down the street from here that's been in business since the 40s and it went up for sale.

My wife and I ended up

long story short, owning this thing.

Not our dream, not what we expected.

We were going to be like silent partners in it.

And now it's ours and we're running it.

And as we're sort of doing the diligence after having bought it, which is not how you're supposed to do, I'm looking at what are the most popular, like what are our most successful sales?

And month in and month out, it's tobacco products.

And now I have to go, fuck, okay, I don't like this.

I don't want this.

And so you take them out.

And then what you're actually doing is just putting a giant hole in the in the in the P&L of the business.

And and not only are you doing that, but people are coming in and going, what?

You know, they're like mad at you for changing the place.

But I had to go, hey, I can't just go around talking about this thing and saying that I believe it when somebody else does it.

But then when in my own business, not want to remove that.

8% of revenue or whatever it is, and then have to be creative and come up with a way to compensate.

But that is what owning a business allows you to do, is take these sort of vague, abstract notions or values or opinions that you have, and then you either have to put up or shut up.